National Geographic, which is producing the historical film, recently released the first look of Trachtenberg as the pivotal, but virtually unknown, character in the story. “I am so excited for the challenge to portray Marina Oswald, and to do my first role speaking only in Russian,” Trachtenberg told US Weekly. “I’m the only actor playing someone who is still alive, so I want to stay as true to her as possible. This is a story about JFK’s assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald and his wife Marina. And it is fascinating.”

Trachtenberg is joining an all-star cast that includes Rob Lowe as President John F. Kennedy, Ginnifer Goodwin as Jacqueline Kennedy and Will Rothhaar (Battle Los Angeles) as Trachtenberg’s onscreen husband, Lee Harvey Oswald. In a statement about the film, President of the National Geographic Channel Howard T. Owens offered high praise to the actors who had come onto the project.

Killing Kennedy, to be directed by Nelson McCormick (The Good Wife, Southland) is based off of the best-selling novel of the same name written by Fox News political pundit Bill O’Reilly. Earlier this year, National Geographic aired an adaptation of O’Reilly’s book about the Abraham Lincoln assassination, Killing Lincoln, which premiered to 3.4 million viewers.

Killing Kennedy is slated to premiere on the 50th anniversary of JFK’s assassination this coming fall.